'Hunger' in the Bible
Jacob had cooked [reddish-brown lentil] stew [one day], when Esau came from the field and was famished;
The seven thin and ugly cows that came up after them are seven years; and also the seven thin ears, dried up and scorched by the east wind, they are seven years of famine and hunger.
but afterward seven years of famine and hunger will come, and [there will be such desperate need that] all the great abundance [of the previous years] will be forgotten in the land of Egypt [as if it never happened], and famine and destitution will ravage and destroy the land.
That food shall be put [in storage] as a reserve for the land against the seven years of famine and hunger which will occur in the land of Egypt, so that the land (people) will not be ravaged during the famine.”
So when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried out to Pharaoh for food; and Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, “Go to Joseph; do whatever he says to you.”
So the sons of Israel came [to Egypt] to buy grain along with the others who were coming, for famine was in the land of Canaan also.
if you are honest men, let one of your brothers be confined in your [place here in] prison; but as for the rest of you, go, carry grain for the famine in your households,
There I will provide for you and sustain you, so that you and your household and all that are yours may not become impoverished, for there are still five years of famine to come.”’
Now [in the course of time] there was no food in all the land, for the famine was distressingly severe, so that the land of Egypt and all the land of Canaan languished [in destitution and starvation] because of the famine.
and the Israelites said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and ate bread until we were full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this entire assembly with hunger.”
He humbled you and allowed you to be hungry and fed you with manna, [a substance] which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, so that He might make you understand [by personal experience] that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.
you will therefore serve your enemies whom the Lord sends against you, in hunger and in thirst, in nakedness and in lack of all things; and He will put an iron yoke [of slavery] on your neck until He has destroyed you.
‘They will be wasted by hunger, and consumed by plagueAnd a bitter destruction;And I will send the teeth of beasts against them,With the venom of crawling things of the dust.
“Those who were full hire themselves out for bread,But those who were hungry cease [to hunger].Even the barren [woman] gives birth to seven,But she who has many children withers away.
“You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger,And brought water for them out of a rock for their thirst,And You told them to enter and take possession ofThe land that You swore to give them.
The young lions lack [food] and grow hungry,But they who seek the Lord will not lack any good thing.
Salvation is far from the wicked,For they do not seek Your statutes.
Laziness casts one into a deep sleep [unmindful of lost opportunity],And the idle person will suffer hunger.
“They will not hunger or thirst,Nor will the scorching heat or sun strike them down;For He who has compassion on them will lead them,And He will guide them to springs of water.
“My lord the king, these men have acted wickedly in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet whom they have thrown into the cistern; and he will die [of hunger] where he is because of the famine, for there is no more bread in the city.”
“Arise, cry aloud in the night,At the beginning of the night watches;Pour out your heart like waterBefore the presence of the Lord;Lift up your hands to HimFor the life of your little onesWho are faint from hungerAt the head of every street.”
Those killed with the swordAre more fortunate than those killed with hunger;For the hungry pine and ebb away,For the lack of the fruits of the field.
We have given the hand [as a pledge of fidelity and submission] to Egypt and Assyria to get enough bread.
When I send against them the deadly arrows of hunger which were for the destruction of those whom I will send to destroy you, then I will increase the famine upon you and break your staff of bread.
Further, I will send against you hunger and wild beasts, and they will bereave you of children; virulent disease and bloodshed also will pass through you, and I will bring the sword on you. I, the Lord, have spoken.’”
I will prepare for them a place renowned for planting [crops], and they will not again be victims of famine in the land, and they will not endure the insults of the nations any longer.
“You shall eat, but you will not be satisfied,And your emptiness shall be among you;You will [try to] remove [your goods and those you love] for safekeepingBut you will fail to save anything,And what you do save I shall give to the sword.